Use 5-30 Syntec from Wal Mart on both my 2000 F150 and 2004 Toyota Highlander at intervals of 5000 miles. I prefer the superior qualities of synthetic and find Syntec at $13+ for 5 qt bottle to be the best bang for the buck. Oil still looks pretty good when I have drained it from either vehicle. Jim

 

Pennzoil? Yuck! When you tear an engine down and you see your parts with a yellow hue color of baked on polyurethane, you know 'with out a doubt' the owner used Pennzoil religiously. At this point, you might as well pull the engine and have the parts machined back to spec or bead blast that irremovable thick film of Pennzoil gunk off. I'm not talking about sludge, I am talking a thick film of 'what looks like a' polyurethane like substance that strong chemicals will not remove.

Edit: I forgot this is not an oil bashing thread. Oops.

 

I believe there was one mention of Pennzoil Platinum in the thread...and that is a full synthetic oil which bears no relationship to the "old wives tale" Pennzoil conventional oil of years past--which may or may not have had problems.

However, oil, like Ford trucks, has been redesigned periodically, and on the bitog forums, the newer Pennzoils, all of them, are doing just fine. It's like saying "all Fords burst into flames" based on the Pinto...

George

 

That statement is completely false. Pennzoil yellow bottle as well as pennzoil platinum are some of the best on the market.

Not sure about pennzoil a long time ago but that's hogwash these days.

 

I have witnessed the horror of using Pennzoil of the past or what you call the "old wives tale". My dad is a mechanic and once in a while he would tear down an engine that had the Pennzoil 'polyurethane' syndrome, he would show me the nightmare the oil caused. I didn't really believe him at first, so I brought some lacquer thinner, xylene, and a bucket of carburetor cleaner to his shop. Lets just say that crap wouldn't come off. But i'm sure the skin melting and very cancerous MEK stripper would have cleaned it if the parts were soaked in it long enough. It was eighter 10-40w or 10-30w that caused it and their other Pennzoil weights didn't do it.

I agree that Pennzoil has most likely solved their problem with their curtain weight of oils. Companies can only disappoint their customers for so long before they have to make changes. But the disappointed and upset customers will always remember, and try to warn others of what it is or what it use to be like.

Don't you guys remember the T.V. commercials Pennzoil use to advertise? They said it added a protective film on the engine parts to protect them. They called it advancements in oil technology! Come on, think, I know most of you remember that commercial. Ahhh...oh well.

Edit: The last engine that I saw that had the polyurethane Pennzoil film on it was like 5 years ago. It was an older Chevy truck with over 150,000 miles on it and over heated and fried the engine. It was evident that the person used that bad Pennzoil weight early on in that trucks life. The head cracked on the truck and that person tried to make it home, but he only made it half way to his house. LOL. He still swears by Pennzoil even after my dad showed him the Polyurethane coating.

 

Not trying to jerk any body's chain, but with out a report from somebody like Blackstone or equiv, how do we really know what may be better than factory recomendations? Using factory recomendations I have accumalated 100's of thousand's of miles on these trucks with no significant wear issues, using nothing more than the recommended oil and service,

 

...so what does an experience from 5 years ago, with oil going back maybe 15-20 years or more, have to do with Pennzoil Platinum anyway? (And just *maybe* it was a problem other than Pennzoil even then...but let's assume not.) This is like me bashing every Ford vehicle because I had bad luck with a specific Ford 5-20 years ago.

I haven't used much Pennzoil in my life, maybe one or two changes over 37 years...I'm generally a Valvoline guy from way back. But Pennzoil yellow bottle and Pennzoil Platinum are very well liked on the basis of UOA's these days. Does ancient history matter right now? I think not. And the thread is specifically about synthetic oil, which I'm sure the old truck guy did not use. And you even say that he blew up the engine because he overheated it due to a cracked head. So did the alleged yellow oil film even harm the engine at all? Would it have not overheated with a different brand?

 

YoGeorge ******** type=text/javascript> vbmenu_register("postmenu_6187981", true); *********> <--------LOL...LOL....LOL-------

People can use what ever they want to use, I can care less. I never have and never will use it. From what I have seen of Pennzoil problems, it has been a complete disaster. This is old news to me, and as far as I know the problem could still exist or perhaps it doesn't.

Watching their advertisements on T.V. stating how superior their oil was compared to all the other competitors, and then seeing damage it caused to the parts in the engines over and over again, I believe people have the right know they MIGHT be taking a risk with Pennzoil products (oil). And yes, it is too early to tell because their new generation oil is fairly new!!! Perhaps they buy it from a different manufacturer now and rebranded it as their own, I do not know. Perhaps when a few people start getting 150,000 - 250,000 miles on their rigs they will have problems, instead of a minor rebuild, they have to replace everything due to their oils. Pennzoil have had problems and if people want to use it then it is their own choice. But now they have a little bit more information they can make choices from.

Please YOGEOGE, go out and try your luck with Pennzoil. I hope your vehicle lasts you a long time or even longer than mine. Your a die hard fan of your oil, as I am of mine. So were the people using the Pennzoil that messed up a lot of engines in the past or possibly the future. Also YOGEOGE, the person who cracked the head, it is stupid because he drove it until it didn't run anymore. Because the engine was toast, my dad tore it apart to see if it was rebuildable. And guess what, broken pistons and cracks from one cylinder to the next cylinder due to overheating because of running out of water DUHHHH...but I got to see again what Pennzoil did to the internal parts. Yep, you can guess what I would have said, (thick polyurethane) I should have sent some parts to Pennzoil. LOL

I am at fault here and I didn't mean to do this. . Sorry

 

I got 2 cases 12 bottels a case. And yogeorge there was periods and stuff no capitalization thank you I didnt know this was english class. But anyways there was a little thing to read on the bottle so I read it last night. It said if you are a driver that dont beat on the car dont take long trips alot or dont tow/plow alot etc then you dont have to change your oil for 35000 miles or one year whatever comes first. And if you are hard on your truck drive short miles 10 or less a day tow alot etc then its recomended to change your oil 17500. We had the 25000 mile oil before and we used it for 3 years and we have had no problems what so ever. Its been really good. You just got to check the oil level once in awhile like normal see if your burning any or not.

 

Man 17,000 - 35,000 miles seems like a lot of miles between oil changes. I thought that paper air cleaners only blocked out 98-99.8% of dirt particles, and K&N or other cold air intake filter only blocked out 96-98% of dust/dirt particles. I really do not think oil breakdown is the problem these days. It doesn't take much dirt in the engine to ruin it. What you guys think?

 

No way would I wait even 10,000 miles between oil changes. No matter what that bottle of oil says, period. I have found in the past on alot of things that instructions and recommendations can be completely wrong. In this case I would NOT follow those recommendations of 35,000 mile oil changes, though if it's been working for you Stillsmoking then more power to you and good luck. I'd rather spend a little more money for oil than a ****load more on a new engine

 

If you google "Mobil1 Extended performance" oils you'll see it guaranteed to deliver oil performance and engine protection for 15000mi. between oil changes. One would of course do regular filter changes. Amsoil is in this class of oil.

I'm just a layman not an oil Exec.

 

Agreed. I have read that also. I just believe in preventive maintenance.Question Zed, are you talking of changing just the filter or the filter with the oil every 15,000 miles? I change the filter every oil change.

 

Nothing wrong with switching to a full syn at 52,000 miles. At higher mileage there is a chance that the switch could lead to some gaskets leaking or dislodging build-up, which would increase the risk of blocking an oil passage. But with your mileage I don't think it would be a concern.

Amsoil is a good quality product; however, it will out-perform you engine. That stuff was developed for jet engines and extreme conditions. So you might be paying for performance you'll never use. But no harm there.

I use Pennzoil Platinum in both my 5.4L engines regardless of the all the urban legends about the Pennzoil products. Not because I'm a brand loyalist, but because I got a bunch on sale. Why do I use syn? Because it makes these ticky engines quieter and syn oil doesn't get consumed like the blend or conventional oil...nothing more, nothing less.

 

yes, regular filter changes.
You for sure have to have the filter capacity to go the full service life of the oil.